(Dis)connection at Kunstvereniging Diepenheim

Artists: Adéla Babanová, Sybren de Boer, Lotte Geeven, Yeb Wiersma, Anna Hulačová, Valentýna Janů, Hannah Joka, Martin Kohout, Frank Mandersloot, Anetta Mona Chisa, Lucia Tkáčová, Maria Pask, Frédérique Bergholtz

Exhibition title: (Dis)connection

Curated by: Karina Kottová and Alexandra Landré

Organized by: Jindřich Chalupecký Society and Kunstvereniging Diepenheim

Venue: Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Diepenheim, The Netherlands

Date: February 2 – May 5, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Kunstvereniging Diepenheim

Jindřich Chalupecký Society and Kunstvereniging Diepenheim (The Netherlands) proudly present the group exhibition (Dis)connection, with installations, sculptures and video works by eleven international artists. The exhibition brings together various artistic positions that are connected by a shared concern: how can we live together in today’s uncertain times?

The question echoes a larger field of social, political and economic issues. It suggests possibilities for rethinking the ways in which we organize ourselves – both personally and collectively. In the midst of a global environmental, humanitarian and political crisis, we have to ask ourselves what we can do to avert catastrophic scenarios. What knowledge can we resort to and which assumptions and values should we let go of? By disconnecting from modern concepts, such as the idea of progress, the participating artists offer space for new imaginative narratives and visions. The most diverse artistic resources are covered: from fictional documentaries and system installations to works that offer reconsideration of the concept of ‘time’. In a critical and intuitive way, alternative approaches of creating connections emerge. (Dis)connection invites the audience to explore these different perspectives and to collectively visualize unorthodox storylines for possible futures.

(Dis)connection is a beginning of a long-term collaborative research, exhibition and discursive project entitled Islands, initiated by the Jindřich Chalupecký Societyand realizedin collaboration with diverseinternationalpartner organizationsand personalities. The notion of an abandoned island serves as an imaginary platform for projecting both utopian and dystopian visions and scenarios for the future pictured by “escapists” from contemporary global crises. The island here needn’t be a physical (lost) paradise, and doesn’t even have to be far ashore. It is rather a metaphor for our exploration of the joint agendas and disparities of past, present and imagined communities, communal practices and forms of “togetherness” which might inspire actual action plans and alternative forms of sustainable collaboration and coexistence.

The project begins in Kunstvereniging Diepenheim in order to highlight the specifics of this venue and similar arts organizations around the world – the kunstverein itself is an “island” of critical reflection and thought-provokingprogramming, situated in a rural environment remote from any larger cities, yet connected through the ideas and creative processes it shares with wide international (artistic) communities.